A new era in baseball?
by Cbeck3
on Jun 28, 2008 9:09 AM EDT
I was thinking about the current trends in the game. The big thing I see is young arms. Boy there are a lot of young arms. With guys like Joba and Pelfrey, doesn't it seem like everywhere we go, we see young hard throwers with a ton of movement? I wonder if there is some way to look at how many pitchers under 25 are in the bigs now against recent years. How about under 23?
Well I think things are different and I wonder why. Are there really more of these guys now, or were they kept in the minors longer? I wonder if they are just getting to the majors faster than in the past. Think about the Detroit staff which beat the Yankees in the playoffs a couple years ago; they have had a lot of injuries. So have the young Yanks, although I hope ours will prove less serious in terms of time out and reduced effectiveness.
I think this is a trend to watch. Are young pitchers better than in the past? Are young pitchers being promoted faster? Will getting to the majors so young have a positive effect on their careers?
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My Initial, Un-Researched Thought....
is that it isn’t any greater, and they aren’t any better, nor do they last any longer, than those young pitchers in the past. Earl Weaver used to have his young pitchers become spot-starters/long relievers when they first started so they can be broken in gradually. Some are ready at a young age, some aren’t. Unfortunately there’s only one way to find out and that’s to pitch them. I get the feeling that the whole pitch-count thing doesn’t really do much good for the modern-day pitcher.
Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet might be helpful in doing research.
"We praise or blame as one or the other affords more opportunity for exhibiting our power of judgment." Friedrich Nietzsche, "Human,All Too Human" (1878)
by wgarrett on Jun 28, 2008 9:32 AM EDT 0 recs
Re:
It is definitely a growing trend and it’s not limited to just pitchers. There’s no question that young players are buzzing through the minors at a much faster rate than ever before.
And teams are putting much more emphasis on the draft these days.
Tom Verducci had a piece just before the draft a few weeks ago discussing this very issue. It’s a very good read:
So on Thursday, a day that used to garner only passing glances, fans of all 30 teams will want to know if their ball club snared the next Ryan Braun or Joba Chamberlain—that is, the next impact player who is going to get to the show in a hurry. Given the growing inefficiency of the free-agent market (Andruw Jones, who brought an overweight body and unproductive bat to the Dodgers for $36 million last winter, is the perfect example of the flawed, expensive player populating that market now), the demise of the late-30s ballplayer, and the trend to tie young players to long-term contracts, you’d better get the draft right if you want to build a sustainable winner. And you probably won’t have to wait through the old-school five-year apprenticeships to find out.
Chamberlain (Yankees), Troy Tulowitzki (Colorado), Justin Upton (Arizona), and Clay Buchholz and Jacoby Ellsbury (Boston) all helped their teams get to the postseason within two years of being drafted. Max Scherzer (Arizona), Clayton Kershaw (Dodgers) and Evan Longoria and David Price (Tampa Bay) have the potential to have that kind of impact this year. Jay Bruce (Reds) is The Next Big Thing, just three years removed from his senior prom. The word on the 2008 draft is that such impact players are lacking in this group. But one thing is for sure: they will get their chance—and quickly.
by anaconda on Jun 28, 2008 9:55 AM EDT 0 recs
I think free agency
has really killed itself by ballooning costs. These veterans just aren’t worth the money when clubs can find people that can be almost as good for major league minimum.
Crowds are won and lost and won again, but our hearts beat for the diehards.
by Edwantsacracker on
Jun 28, 2008 2:06 PM EDT
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Yep
Now the market might never correct itself for superstars, but I think we saw the first signs of starting pitchers this season signing for less than they have in the past.
But the trend that saw Pujols, Cabrera, Cano, etc sign before free agency only figures to continue.
Guys like Reggie Jackson or Gary Sheffield, All-Star/HoF caliber, who play for four or five teams in their careers figure to be dinosaurs of the thirty year FA “boom” period.
"Have faith in the Yankees, my son. Think of the great DiMaggio."
by jscape2000 on
Jun 28, 2008 3:41 PM EDT
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